Many harms flow across the ever-more porous sovereign borders of a globalizing world. These harms expose weaknesses in the international legal regime built on sovereignty of nation states. Using the Trail Smelter Arbitration, one of the most cited cases in international environmental law, this book explores the changing nature of state responses to transboundary harm.

Taking a critical approach, the book examines the arbitration's influence on international law generally, and international environmental law specifically. In particular, the book explores whether there are lessons from Trail Smelter that are useful for resolving transboundary challenges currently confronting the international community. The book collects the commentary of a distinguished set of international law scholars who consider the history of the Trail Smelter arbitration, its significance for international environmental law, its broader relationship to international law, and its resonance in fields beyond the environment.

Innovative exploration of how international law responds to transboundary harm

12. Through the looking glass: sustainable development and other emerging concepts of international environmental law in the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros case and the Trail Smelter arbitration James F. Jacobson